Bird houses and cages decorated in silver the hall of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. These cages exhibited dozens of rare and very expensive pigeons in the midst of a large and impressive public attendance from all the cities of the Gaza Strip.
Khan Younis governorate witnessed few days ago the opening of the third exhibition of pigeon keepers in Palestine. With the participation of 280 pigeon keepers and amateur collectors and about 200 kinds of rare fancy pigeons from all over the world.
Rare species
The exhibition featured rare types of pigeons such as: American King English Carrier German Beauty Homer Egyptian Alexandrian Zaghloul Balun Maltese Santanet Frish Lion and Syrian Pigeons.
Nabil Omar one of the organizers of the exhibition told the Palestinian Information Center that the idea of organizing the exhibition started with individual efforts three years ago in Baroun Hall in Gaza and then in Saad Sayel Hall and today in Abu Yusuf Al Najjar Hall in Khan Younis.
Omar expressed his great joy about the unexpected levels of success of the exhibition “This year there has been a wider turnout than the previous pigeon exhibitions” he said. “This year the cages reached 280 while in the past year it reached 170” he added. Omar said: “Assistance has been provided from some Jordanian and Egyptian brothers whom we communicate with permanently to provide us with rare and unique pigeon types as well as international certificates.”
Omar pointed out that the purpose of the exhibition is to send a message to the world that the people of Palestine in general and the Gaza Strip in particular love peace. He also pointed out that the Syrian pigeons were present among the bird species in the exhibition; they bought them from merchants in the West Bank who bought them from Syrians after the war.
He added that the prices of some birds amount to about 15 thousand shekels pointing out that a male English Carrier pigeon was sold last year for 1100 dollars. He added: “Birds enter the Gaza Strip from the West Bank through the Kerem Shalom crossing officially” adding that the next step after the exhibition is the formation of a special association for pigeon keepers in the Gaza Strip.
Pigeon keepers and amateur collectors
In his Egyptian dialect Eng. Mohamed Hijazi one of the participants in the exhibition said that his presence in this exhibition is meant to assert the existence of pigeon keepers and amateur collectors in the besieged enclave besides the purpose of trade.
Hijazi pointed out to our correspondent that he is participating in the exhibition with pigeons of “Hammam Zaghl” type where he won with them competitions and obtained certificates from the Egyptian association for pigeon keepers. He added that the prices of these pigeons range between 1000 and 1500 shekels per pair.
He underlined that there is a youth gathering in Rafah for amateur collectors and pigeon keepers pointing out that this hobby is expensive and not cheap at all; it costs them time effort and money. He said: “We hope the Ministry of Agriculture and concerned parties would provide the necessary assistance for this segment.”
For fun
Hatem El-Ghalban 27 years old a visitor to the exhibition explained to the PIC that he was present at the exhibition in order to get acquainted with the new species of birds along with their qualities and specifications.
He added: “The pigeon exhibition of Palestine is one of the exhibitions that I like to visit; because it includes many distinctive types of pigeons which are usually missing in the markets and we could see them only amongst the well-known amateur pigeon keepers in the Gaza Strip.”
